The Association for the Wellbeing of Elder Sportpersons (AWES) will organise their first ever AWES Cup football tournament, starting September 1 at the Duler Stadium, Mapusa.
Twelve teams, including four from outside the state, will compete for top honours in the tournament which is backed by the Goa Football Association (GFA) as the official curtain raiser for the season ahead.
Top teams from Goa like Goa Pro League champions Salgaocar FC, Sporting Clube de Goa, Dempo Sports Club, FC Bardez, FC Goa (developmental squad), Vasco Sports Club, Calangute Association and Dempo Juniors have confirmed their participation, while outstation teams like Gokulam FC (Kerala), Viva Chennai (Tamil Nadu), ONGC (Maharashtra) and FC Pune City (developmental squad) will also travel to Goa and take on the best teams from here.
The final is scheduled to be held on September 17.
“AWES is a recently-formed organisation that took shape with the sole aim of providing our former greats with a life of dignity particularly in their twilight years. They have done the state proud and it is our responsibility to ensure their wellbeing,” said AWES president Avertano Furtado.
AWES has several sporting greats as members with Brahmanand Shankhwalkar, Armando Colaco, Derrick Pereira, Savio Medeira, Lector Mascarenhas, Francis D’Souza, Yolanda de Sousa, Juliana Gurjao e Colaco, Mauricio Afonso, Samir Naik, Lenny D’Gama and Girish Lotlikar as some of the members.
“Since formation early this year, AWES organised a get-together of great footballers in May and we were encouraged with the overwhelming response. Our next aim is to raise funds for our organisation so that we have money and resources to look after them when they require,” said AWES vice-president Vinod Parkkot.
The GFA has been supportive of this initiative and has promised all possible help to make the tournament a success.
“We are more than happy to support initiatives like this. Former players who have done the state and country proud cannot be forgotten after they have retired. The GFA wishes AWES all success,” said GFA secretary Welvin Menezes.
The tournament’s associate sponsors include Dempo SC, Salgaocar FC, Sporting Clube de Goa, FC Goa and HDFC Bank Limited.
Below are the groupings
Group A: Dempo SC, ONGC (Mumbai), Calangute Association
Group B: Salgaocar FC, Viva FC (Chennai), FC Goa (Development Squad),
Group C: FC Bardez, FC Pune City (Development Squad), Dempo SC (Jrs) Group Sporting Clube de Goa, Gokulam FC (Kerala), Vasco SC
Mohun Bagan beat Pathachakra 5-2; goalscorers for MB were Kamo (4) and Kromah, while Nadong Bhutia and Joel Sunday reduced the margin for Pathachakra. In other matches, Rainbow AC beat Railway FC 1-0 while Tollygunge Agragami drew 0-0 with Kolkata Customs
Unless you have more competitive teams, this league is meaningless. The top two teams scoring 4-5 goals consistently is not good advertisement for the league. It is almost they could cancel all the matches and stage only the two derbies.
This year CFL is becoming very interesting with the big 3 in contention for the title. Only IFA needed to be just a bit professional in scheduling. It is not accepted that they could not bring out the entire schedule (having just 45 matches) at a single go. Utpal dada's worthlessness creates a doubt about his credibility. But all said & done I am enjoying the competition this year & it is amazing to see the crowd at the Mohun Bagan ground even on working days...East stand fully packed, North stand fully packed, Members stand may be 70% full....20k crowd on an average. Absolutely gorgeous setting. Hope this trend continues & surely it is a fitting reply to the so called Kolkata Franchise boss's claim of his team's popularity.
What competition? between the top 2? Because MSC will as usual be the distant third. Other teams are not being able to put up much resistance to the top 2, even with the big 2 playing without the stars and below-par foreigners.
Yes, the only silver line is the packed galleries.
Comments
Group
In other matches, Rainbow AC beat Railway FC 1-0 while Tollygunge Agragami drew 0-0 with Kolkata Customs
I am losing interest ...
Yes, the only silver line is the packed galleries.
Source: ABP